How clever Howe’s brave tactic and Isak’s ‘go, stop, go’ mastery can finally end Newcastle’s trophy drought at Wembley

A HUGE chunk of Newcastle fans have never seen their side lift a trophy – but Sunday could finally be the day.

It’s been 70 years since the Toon celebrated getting their hands on some silverware, when they beat Manchester City to win the 1955 FA Cup.

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Newcastle haven’t won a trophy since the 1955 FA Cup win over Man City[/caption]

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Eddie Howe has some huge calls to make ahead of the Wembley showdown with Liverpool[/caption]

How Liverpool and Newcastle’s star men compare ahead of the Carabao Cup final

The 1968-69 Fairs Cup triumph aside, the Magpies have been left utterly deprived of titles.

But on Sunday, Eddie Howe’s squad have the chance to finally break that horrendous drought when they take on Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley.

And in the latest episode of SunSport’s Tactics Exposed, our tactics expert DEAN SCOGGINS looks at where Newcastle can hurt the Reds and finally end their silverware misery.

Here are Dean’s three top observations…

1. Isak’s ‘go, stop, go’ can hurt Van Dijk.. again

Alexander Isak did a very, very cool thing against Virgil van Dijk when they played in at St James’ Park earlier in the season, which finished 3-3… I’m going to call it “go, stop, go”.

We’ve got a fairly similar formation set up for both teams – they’re going to set up as 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, fairly similar.

But the most important thing, what we’ll see straight away is Liverpool’s back four are going to be against Newcastle’s attacking three.

Isak will be the man to try and take on Ibrahima Konate and Van Dijk by himself, because Newcastle will go man for man in a lot of other areas on the field – Howe backs them to win individual duels all over the pitch.

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But what Isak did in that first game at St James’ Park against Van Dijk and Konate, is move forward, first of all, which makes these two defenders go drop back.

Then he stops so he can receive the ball… and then he goes again. So then he’s faced you up as a defender.

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Alexander Isak has had some success with Virgil van Dijk already this season and his ‘go, stop, go’ strategy could reap the rewards[/caption]

And then, does the defender start to narrow the gap like Van Dijk would naturally do? And then when he picks the ball up, he’s running to the side, which is where he scored his goal from earlier in the season.

Of course, if the defenders do get in a great position and block his path, and he receives the ball into feet, that’s when you get your runner from this side, who’s likely to be Harvey Barnes in the cup final because we’ve got no Anthony Gordon.

And then you get Jacob Murphy coming up the other side with his pace the other way, running into these channels because Isak has made that narrow space there.

Are Van Dijk and Konate going to be able to make a decision between them? You know, like the old one-to-one defending, “you go to him and I’ll drop”…

Or as soon as they get flat, they’ve got a problem because he’s going to make a run in between around the outsides of them.

He’s going to be a big handful.

2. Joelinton surprise key to stopping Salah

Newcastle have obviously got a problem where with Lewis Hall injured, they’re going to have to move Livramento to left back.

It’s a shame is because what they’ve done previously against Liverpool is almost create a back five by having Hall playing the left midfield role and then Dan Burn playing left back.

Burn comes inside and Hall goes back to left back, which creates a back five, which means Mo Salah‘s got a double up scenario.

They haven’t got that because Burn is going to have to play as the left centre back and Livramento is going to be the man who’s going to be one for one.

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Joelinton will be the surprise man who could be key to stopping Mo Salah[/caption]

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Lewis Hall’s absence is a massive blow to Newcastle in slowing down Mo Salah[/caption]

The key man here is Joelinton, who’ll play to the the left of that midfield three – and there’ll have to be a decision between him and Burn about who’s going to be the double up man.

That’s going to be communication between those two.. double up on him at all costs whenever you can.

But the other tactical thing that I think is really important to note is that when Liverpool have the ball in defensive positions, they can be quite direct.

With Newcastle pressing high, man-to-man, they’ll go direct to Salah as fast as they can – and the key thing from Newcastle defensive point of view is that they get him going away from goal.

They’ll have to make sure they’re engaging him straight away. Newcastle are a very fit, very physical, very dynamic team and this approach suits them because they can go and do that and not be frightened if the ball goes in behind.

So those three left-footed, left-sided players are going to be key, three of them together, in trying to stop Salah.

3. Howe’s very brave and clever tactic

Eddie Howe is incredibly clever. When Newcastle beat Arsenal in the semi-final, the line up was much more of a back five.

But they identified that often Arsenal play out through Declan Rice in that game.

So instead of having a midfielder go and push onto Rice and open up the passing lanes, Fabian Schar came all the way out to press him on the edge of Arsenal’s own area and caused them loads of problems.

It was a brave, brave tactic but this is what I think they could do against Liverpool.

What they do now is that Bruno Guimaraes is not always the one who sits deep, he will go and press with the attack.

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Eddie Howe was clever and brave against Arsenal – will he be so bold in the final against Liverpool?[/caption]

They’ll have Isak, Guimaraes and the wingers pressing, and then you end up with a midfielder pushing up as well.

And the defence doesn’t push up. So that leaves a massive corridor of space in front of the defence.

But because they’re so brave with the press and they go man-to-man all over the place in attacking areas, inevitably what happens is a goalkeeper or a defender will play over the top.

As soon as the ball goes into the air, the defenders are going to attack the free Liverpool man in the air and then they’re going to try and win the ball back.

As soon as the ball’s in the air, Newcastle’s two hardworking midfielders will straight away come sprinting back.

And then they win the ball back, they’re going at you 4v4 in the other direction.

So by creating this huge space that the midfielders have to cover, they’re saying our midfield’s fitter than yours. We’re going to win more duels than you. And then we’re going to win the ball back by pressing high, but not pressing the defence up.

So I’ll be really intrigued if they do that at Wembley on that massive pitch and how long they can keep up that intensity.

But by creating that big space and being very committed in the press, they could have some joy. It’s a cup final, right? Go and win it, lads.